Tuesday, 8 October 2013

Quick session success

After last weeks success obviously I was keen to get down again to try and pick up where I left off. My only chance to get out this weekend was on Saturday evening and I got to the river for about 5pm. We'd had a little rain over the last couple of days but even so I was surprised to find the river carrying nearly a foot with a fair bit of colour in it. I really didn't think we'd had enough rain to make any difference. The stretch was also unusually busy, in fact I've never seen so many down there! I decided to head away from the crowds and create a new swim a field or so downstream.

Once fishing I quickly found that the dreaded drifting weed was back with a vengeance and recasting every 15-20 mins was soon starting to wear a little thin. A bite just before dark resulted in a huge framed Chub and I was genuinely shocked when the needle on the scales only went around to 4.12. It was a monster and looked way heavier than what it was.

As darkness fell I was getting getting so fed up with the weed and debris coming down the river I contemplated an early packup. In the end I decided to just leave the bait out there and see what happened and as it turned out I didn't have to wait too long. A hefty tug followed by a one noter on the delkim saw me connected to a Barbel which absolutely stripped the line off the clutch . After kicking about in the flow downstream for a minute or so it seemed to give up and I pumped it upstream and straight Ito the waiting net. At 7lb8oz I think it's the smallest I've had this season but it was still very welcome given the tough conditions.

An hour later and I was hooked into something altogether more substantial. It did the upstream battle thing so I knew it was a decent fish and once near the net It didn't seem to want to give up. I struggled a little as the flow kept sweeping the net away but I managed to scoop the fish out eventually. This one went 11lb2oz and seeing as I didn't fancy battling the weed any longer it rounded my session off nicely. The Trent seems to be really switching on at the moment and I can't wait to get back down as soon as possible!